Benincasa Community: The Evolving Fruit of Strong Roots

When Karen Gargamelli-McCreight discerned that vowed religious life wasn’t her calling, she set out to find another way to form a sacred community through which she could live out her ideals as an integrated Catholic person of faith. In the heart of New York City, Karen and her friends knocked on door after door in search of an unused rectory or convent that could become a home. Finally, in 2015, they were given permission to rent an unoccupied 17-room convent that they eventually converted into a living community and a house of hospitality. Through a season of renovation and determination, and with the help of the New York Catholic Worker and the Dominican Sisters of Amityville, Karen, her now husband Sean, and their friend James Hannigan became the co-founders of the Benincasa Community. 

Benincasa is named after St. Catherine (Benincasa) of Siena, and in the spirit of St. Catherine the Benincasa Community is dedicated to the works of mercy and justice in our world. “We’re a lay intentional community of people who are attempting to represent some of the values and practices of religious life in the Catholic tradition,” shared co-founder Sean in a recent conversation. For five years in that first community home, long-term residential members shared space and built community with a wide range of short-term guests. From people seeking asylum to survivors of domestic violence, from LGBTQ youth seeking shelter to interfaith groups to spoken word poets, hospitality was a lived charism since the inception of Benincasa. Residents and guests sought to live up to the community’s namesake and their four pillars of prayer, study, service, and community. 

Though Benincasa has been through two moves and various evolutions since then, its dedication to those founding commitments has remained steadfast. “What keeps us grounded are our four pillars, but how we interpret them is ever-changing and ever-unfolding. We’re not bound by the rigidity that maybe some orders or groups in the big tent of Catholicism are bound by.” No longer housed in a former convent in New York City, now the Benincasa Community can be found on a former campground in Guilford, CT, and the land on which it sits has become a vital component of its ministry. Through its relationship with the land and the hospitality that is fostered on the property, the community continues to honor its four pillars, as well as its founding roots. 

“Benincasa,” shared Sean, “is the fruit of three different roots.  One of those roots being women religious– so orders like the Dominican Sisters of Amityville who had a decades long connection to some of the members of our community, and also the Manhattan Jesuit community, which was Dan Berrigan’s community, and then the Catholic Worker Movement.” The fruit of each of these roots can be found in daily life on the property.  Sean, Karen, their children, and other community members live their lives in a monastic rhythm learned from women religious. For Sean, this rhythm “offers some direction and accountability,” and helps him stay rooted in both prayer and right relationship with others. In the Peter Maurin Garden, named after the co-founder of the Catholic Worker Movement, folks have the opportunity to work with the land, and all that is grown is shared with local food pantries and soup kitchens. And in the Dan Berrigan Center for Art and Activism, guests can foster the same spirit of solidarity as the beloved Jesuit, activist, pacifist, and author. Though the vast acreage of its current home looks very different than an Upper West Side convent, Benincasa remains committed to the values from which it first took root, while also fostering a receptivity to what the future may hold.  

So what do the next ten years look like for the Benincasa community? “Well,” admitted Sean, “it’s sometimes hard to think about the future, to be honest, when there’s so much happening in the present.” But after a thoughtful pause, Sean continued:

“You know, at Benincasa part of our Eucharistic Prayer in our Liturgy is may we become better peacemakers, wholemakers, truth tellers,  and good allies in solidarity with all creation. And so that’s a guiding light.” As their story continues to unfold, Benincasa will no doubt continue to blossom from its roots, and continue leaning-in to its sacred mission in our world.   

 Interested in learning more about Benincasa?
For more information, check out their website: https://www.benincasacommunity.org/. 

Focus Question

Do you know of or belong to a community that you would like to see highlighted? Reach out to Martha at martha@futurechurch.org.